I remember one day at a museum in Helsinki cringing over the antics of two stereotypical brash American tourists. First of all, you have to understand, 99% of the people in Finland speak English. Many even speak it with better grammar than a good portion of Americans. But apparently when these two had stopped someone on the street to ask for directions, they found one person who couldn’t understand them.
Eventually they found this museum that they had been seeking, and proceeded – while wandering around an almost silent exhibit room – to complain in booming voices about how rude it is that people don’t bother to learn English. Continue reading